Dermacol high coverage foundation & invisible fixing powder

I had heard a lot about this high coverage Dermacol foundation, about how it’s supposed to be able to cover anything and how it makes you look flawless. So, I decided to go ahead and purchase both the high coverage foundation and the Dermacol invisible fixing powder in order to find out for myself. I wanted to put them through their paces and see if they live up to their claims.

Purchasing

First thing was trying to decide what skin tone number I am. Now, I am first to admit how super pale I am and often foundation is just too dark for me even in their lightest shade. Looking online though, the lightest shade was 207 and I thought that might be too light. I ended up going with 208, which is the second lightest. The range of skin tones was pretty good, 13 shades that I could see online, which, although isn’t huge it’s better than some make up lines.

The invisible fixing powder confused me slightly, two different ones were available for purchase (light and medium) and yet they both say they are transparent.. so, why are there two shades?! Anyway, I went with the safer option of light. I definitely have never been a medium skin tone in my life.

Price point

Initial Thoughts

The foundation comes in a box, which is not what I’ve been used to in the past. When I opened the box up I was overwhelmed when confronted with an instruction leaflet. That was not expected! I started to wonder if this was the right foundation for me if it needed a set of instructions! However, after reading them, it was nothing I didn’t already know and I was left a little baffled as to why they felt the need to include them.

The next point of weird came when inspecting the foundation within the box. It came in a tube, much like an ointment and even more weird was that you open the tube exactly like an ointment. (You know the ones where you turn the lid around to pierce the foil? It had that!) I’m not really sure what I was expecting this foundation to look like, but since I’ve been used to pump bottles of late, I guess I was hoping for a thin one of those.

Tattoo Coverage

I had heard that this high coverage foundation had been used to cover tattoos, and since I have a tattoo I figured I would test this out for myself. As you can see by my poor quality picture below (apologies for that, by the way.. it’s much harder to take a picture of my own tattoo than I thought it would be) it did not cover well at all. Not only was the foundation incredibly dark for my skin tone, I could still see the tattoo beneath it. I’m not sure if you layer it up that it would cover either as I slathered a pretty decent amount on there.

Sponge application didn’t make my tattoo disappear and even using my fingertips I still didn’t see much in the way of results.

I covered the right side with the high coverage foundation and didn’t cover the left side, so you could see the difference.

It looks orange tinged compared to my pasty white arm. I was getting nervous for how this was going to look on my face at this point!

Mixed Opinion on the high coverage foundation

After testing it on my tattoo and being less than impressed, I thought I had better see how it looks on my face. I used my usual primer, but I do think there is a Dermacol one if you wanted the full experience. I put the tiniest bit of the high coverage foundation on the back of my hand, a lot less than I do of my usual foundation (I’m thankful I did because a little bit goes a long way) and then began to press it into my face with my usual Real Techniques sponge.

My initial reaction was, “Wow, this is actually a really good match to my face” I was super surprised at that, considering it looked totally the wrong shade on my arm. I guess my face must be slightly darker.. either that or I’m just used to darker foundation on my face anyway.

It’s definitely a high coverage foundation, I found it went over all my skin imperfections without any trouble. I had a scab above my eye when testing (don’t ask) and it even covered that without it looking cakey or weird. The coverage performed better than any foundation or concealer I’ve ever used, so for that it gets full marks on its claim of being high coverage.

I have extremely dry skin and I’m usually thankful when a foundation is a little oilier.. but this was just way too oily. It was high shine and I didn’t like the finish on its own. There was no way I could wear this by itself.

Opinion on the fixing powder

Seeing how oily the high coverage foundation was I thought maybe I could bring it down a notch and make it more matte with the powder and then maybe it would redeem itself. That was indeed the case. I applied the Invisible Fixing Powder and it got rid of the oil and shine. It made my skin feel velvety and I was much happier with the look after that. I’m pretty sure any loose transparent powder would have the same result, but since I only trialled it with the Dermacol one I can at least say that worked with the foundation.

I was checking it out in the mirror at this point when my fiancé walked in and went, “Woah, you look amazing!” which is always super nice to hear, but even more so when I wasn’t sure what I thought of this foundation. I looked at it from a distance and then took some selfies (none of which came out good enough to share, sorry) but I was impressed with how airbrushed my skin looked. I looked photoshopped.. it was a bit surreal.

After wearing all day

Let me just say that I’m super thankful I was just wearing this at home and it was just my fiancé and our two cats at home.. because after looking at my face in the mirror at the end of the day, it was scary! The foundation had separated weirdly in patches all over my face, most noticeably on the forehead and sides of my nostrils and it looked cakey and bad! I think for long wear, this is a no go, but for short wear maybe? It just didn’t look cute after a day’s wear at all, if anyone got close to my face they’d be able to see how bad the foundation looked.. which is not what you want! Far away, it was passable, but if anyone got within arms reach of me they’d see how much of a mess it truly was.

Final thoughts

Long story short, I won’t be using this as a foundation again. I will, however, be using it when I need a heavier concealer. I’m going to be breaking this out when my face is breaking out. It gets an A+ for working amazing as a concealer, but for me, personally, I’m going to have to give it a miss as a foundation. I’m sad about that because it wasn’t cheap and I was expecting so much more and it just failed me, but hey, at least I can still get some use out of it I guess. The powder has performed just as well as any loose transparent powder, so save your money.

Have you tried either of these products? What did you think of them? Or do you think you’ll give them a go yourself? Let me know in the comments below.